482 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION K. 



which has been sent from X as Y, which it obviously is not ; but what is 

 it, whence does it probably come, and what supply of it is likely to he 

 forthcoming ? These are questions which it would be useful to be able to 

 answer with some greater approach to accuracy than at present. And it 

 should be the work of definitely trained persons. I recall a sample of wood 

 which some months ago, coming from a Government Department, went the 

 round of the various institutions which were at all likely to be able to 

 Bupply the required information as to its identity. It should hare been 

 matter of common knowledge where to apply, with at the same time reasonable 

 certainty of obtaining the information required. 



It is possible also that a more systematic study of minute structure would 

 help to solve questions of affinity. A chemical study has proved of value 

 in the discrimination of the species of Eucalyptus in Australia. 



Apart from co-operation between the botanist and the practical or com- 

 mercial man, there is need for co-ordination between workers. I give the 

 following incident from real life. At the meeting of an advisory committee 

 the head of a certain institution stated that he had set one of his staff to work 

 at a certain disease which was then under discussion, but had learnt shortly 

 after that a student at another institution was engaged on the same piece of 

 work. A conference led to a useful division, one of the workers to study the 

 life history of the organism in the laboratory, the other to work at conditions 

 of life, &c., in the field. But it also transpired that another institution, as well 

 as another independent worker, were engaged on the same problem, and while 

 it was suggested that in one case co-operation might be invited, it was deemed 

 inadvisable to approach the other. The problem in this case was not one of 

 such special difficulty as to require so much attention, and even if it had been 

 some co-ordination between the various working units would have been helpful. 

 Similar instances will occur to you. The measure of efficiency of our science 

 should be the sum of the efficiency of its workers. It should be possible to 

 devise some means for informing fellow-workers as to the piece of work in 

 hand or proposed to be undertaken, and thus on the one hand to avoid wasteful 

 expenditure of tijme and effort, and not infrequently the hurried publication of 

 incomplete results, and on the other to ensure where jsracticable the benefits 

 of co-operation. 



The various illustrative suggestions which I have made would imply a 

 close co-operation between the schools of botany and colleges and institutions 

 of agriculture, horticulture, and f oi-estry ; to pass from the former to one or 

 other of the latter for special work or training should be a natural thing. 

 While on the one hand a University course is not an essential preliminary to 

 the study of one or other of the applied branches, the advantages of a broad, 

 general training in the principles of the science cannot be gainsaid. The estab- 

 lishment of professorships, readerships, or lectureships in economic botany at 

 the University would supply a useful link between the pure and applied science, 

 while research fellowships or scholarships would be an incentive to investigation. 



There is the wider question of a rapprochement between the man of science 

 and the commercial man. Its desirability is obvious, and the advantages 

 would be mutual ; on the one hand it would secure the spread and application 

 of the i-esults of research, and on the other hand the man of science would be 

 directed to economic problems of which otherwise he might not become cog- 

 nisant. The closer association between the academic institution and those 

 devoted to the application of the science would be a step in this direction. 



Our British possessions, especially within the tropics, contain a wealth of 

 material of economic value which has been only partially explored. One of the 

 first needs is a tabulation of the material. In the important series of Colonial 

 floras incepted by Sir Joseph Hooker, and published under the auspices of 

 Kew, lies the foundation for further work. Consider, for instance, the ' Flora 

 of Tropical Africa,' now rapidly nearing completion. This is a careful and, 

 so far as possible with the material at hand, critical descriptive catalogue of 

 the plants from tropical Africa which are preserved in the great British and 

 European Herbaria. The work has been done by men with considerable train- 

 ing in systematic work, but who know nothing at first hand of the country the 

 vegetation of which they, are cataloguing. Such a ' Flora ' must be regarded as 



